News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup

Results from 8th grade reading and writing exams in New York state
have been delayed because of a scoring problem by the same testing
company whose errors in 1999 mistakenly sent thousands of New York City
students to summer school.

The faulty results will not have the same impact as the mistakes
made two years ago by CTB/McGraw-Hill, a Monterey, Calif.-based
publisher of standardized tests, because the scoring flaw in this case
was identified before the results were released publicly. Also, results
from the exams are not intended to determine which students may advance
to the 9th grade.

The problem with the 8th grade exams, taken by about 200,000
students statewide last spring, arose from a procedure used to compare
test results from year to year, according to Tom Dunn, a spokesman for
the state education department.

At the request of the state education department, Mr. Dunn said, the
company has agreed to include a larger number of tests in the sample
used to equate this year's test with those of previous years. Revised
results will be released at the end of this month, he said.

April Hattori, a spokeswoman for CTB, said "there were no scoring
mistakes or errors with the test. We used a small sample, and they had
some questions about those results."

—John Gehring

Pa. Governor Hits Phila. Schools in Farewell Speech

Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania took a parting shot at the
Philadelphia schools, but also called for more education aid to the
city, in his Oct. 2 farewell speech to the legislature.

Citing low test scores and high truancy rates, the two-term Republican
governor declared, "The Philadelphia school district is literally
failing our children."

Mr. Ridge's remarks were significant because his departure comes
halfway through a high-stakes review of the district, which he helped
negotiate.

His departure to Washington, where President Bush has named him to
lead domestic terrorism-prevention efforts, cast a shadow of
uncertainty over that review. While Lt. Gov. Mark S. Schweiker was
slated to be sworn in as governor Oct. 5 and will take up the issue,
his positions on education are not widely known. ("For Phila.
Schools, New Pa. Governor Means Uncertainty," Oct. 3, 2001.)

Without getting specific, Mr. Ridge said the review will show that
"money is being wasted" by the district. He added that Edison Schools
Inc., the company that was given a $2.7 million contract to conduct the
review, "will shine a bright light on those shortcomings."

Philadelphia school officials voiced disappointment at Mr. Ridge's
remarks. Philip R. Goldsmith, the district's chief executive officer,
told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he viewed the speech as "a
kick in the gut."

In his address, Gov. Ridge defended the possibility that Edison
Schools Inc., would run some sites in Philadelphia. "Some would prefer
publicly funded schools that fail children, to privately operated
schools that serve them well," he remarked. But he warned that the
state and city must spend more on the financially strapped, 210,000-
student district: "We will not be able to reverse decades of
educational neglect without more money."

—Robert C. Johnston

Calif. Suit Over Schools Expanded to Whole State

A California judge last week broadened the scope of a lawsuit
alleging that the state has abdicated its duty to ensure decent
educational standards in all its schools, handing a victory to the
plaintiffs in the case.

Citing such conditions as rat-infested buildings and chronic
teaching vacancies, a coalition of groups sued the state in May 2000 on
behalf of students in 18 mostly urban districts. ("Calif. Schools
Lack Basics, Suit Alleges," May 24, 2000.) The state subsequently
countersued those districts, arguing they had fallen down on the
job.

"The court's decision confirms that this is a case of statewide
dimensions requiring statewide solutions," said Mark Rosenbaum, the
legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern
California, one of the groups that filed the suit.

Ann Bancroft, a spokeswoman for state Secretary of Education Kerry
Mazzoni, said state officials see the legal challenge as an effort to
"wreak havoc" on local control of schools. If it prevails, she
suggested, the result would be "a huge new bureaucracy at the state
level for hearing such complaints as the toilet doesn't work."

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